How To Do A Fine Wine Tasting

Determining the quality of a wine is an art, and it is an art that everyone can learn. Here are a few, simple, basic ways to tell if you are tasting an excellent wine. More important, you can explain why you like or do not like a specific wine. This way you can really taste the wine, you can remember it,and you can determine if you want to continue drinking this wine.

Wine tasting involves five simple steps. Look at the wine, swirl it, smell it, taste it, then consider it.

Take a piece of white paper and a clear wine glass. Pour your wine into the glass. Notice that wine is poured up to the widest area of the glass. This gives the wine a change to breathe and release its aroma. Now, for either white or red white, look at its color. Check to see if it is clear. Any cloudiness may indicate unwanted bacterial activity. If the wine is too sparkly, that may indicate a secondary fermentation which you also want to avoid. If it has any hint of brown tinge, it has oxidized, and you will not want to drink it. Notice that white wine ranges in color from pale straw to true yellow to pale pink depending upon the type of wine and the grape or mixture of grapes used. Red wine can range from a deep, dark burgundy to a more transparent, almost translucent, yet still opaque color. Enjoy the color.

Next, swirl the wine around in the glass. The wine takes up about half the wine glass and has plenty of room to swirl. Swirling the wine allows it to release its aroma. Take a few deep breaths. What do you smell? You don't want anything with a hint of mold or fungus. Assuming your wine smells good, what are the odors you are picking up? Think of fruits, citrus, apple, plum or berries, green plants, or herbs, such as cinnamon, pepper. Perhaps it smells to you of coffee or tobacco or leather or minerals. Any of these are common wine aromas, arising from its place of origin-its earth or terroir.

Now for the big one. Taste the wine. Allow it to rest for a moment in your mouth. Feel the wine in your whole mouth. The tip of the tongue detects sweetness and the sides of the tongue acidity. The center of the tongue feels the weight of the wine-light, medium or full-bodied. Think of it like milk. Does it feel like skim, whole milk or cream? This is important because, among other things, the weight of the wine tells the alcohol content. Less for light, medium and then most alcoholic is full-bodied wine.

Your taste will also tell you about the acidity of the wine as well as the balance and smoothness. If you are tasting a red wine, then you must also consider the tannins, an astringent, bitter quality which can change texture in your mouth. Tannins can feel like velvet or suede or rough sandpaper. If you are puckering, it's possibly a cheap, rough wine. Good wine is smooth, though often feeling dry on your tongue.

At this point, you will realize that the smell of the wine hinted at its taste. If you smelled a whisper of mineral, do you taste it as well? Does the wine have a light, citrusy taste or a deep plummy taste? The experience of wine drinking is a total experience, involving the eyes, the nose and the mouth. For the wine to be memorable, all these sense are involved in a particularly notable way.

Now consider the wine you have just tasted. Could you remember this wine? Is it memorable in any way? Would you be willing to purchase it again? How much did you pay for the wine you are tasting? Is it worth it? http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Do-A-Fine-Wine-Tasting&id=5959103